Agartala: The Left Front government has decided to set up a state university in Tripura and this will be taken up in the monsoon session of the assembly beginning on Friday, a minister said here on Monday.

"A bill to set up the university will be presented in the monsoon session of the Tripura assembly to boost higher education in the state," Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty told IANS.

"After passing the bill in the assembly and obtaining the governor`s assent, it would be sent to union human resource development ministry and the University Grants Commission for approval," the minister added.

The monsoon session will last for four days.

Tripura currently has a central university and a private university.

The proposed state government-run university would be named after erstwhile Tripura king Maharaja Birbikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur (1923-1947), who had set up the state`s first degree college in Agartala in 1947.

Chakraborty, who holds higher and school education department, said: "The proposed university would further boost higher education in the state and attract students from Bangladesh and other northeastern states."

Set up in 1987, the existing Tripura University was turned into a central university in 2007. It has been ranked fourth in eastern India and 43rd in the country in a recent survey conducted by private study groups.

The central varsity has 15 post-graduate courses in science and 19 courses in arts and commerce. Besides, the university has one-year post-graduate diploma courses in bamboo cultivation and resource utilisation, tribal language and rubber technology.

To ease the pressure of the Tripura University, the proposed university would help to boost the excellence in higher education, the minister said.

Tripura presently has 22 degree colleges, two medical colleges and 15 other professional and technical colleges with around 18,000 students annually enrolled in the colleges.